


Baby Brother

by AniZH



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Brothers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:01:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24845713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AniZH/pseuds/AniZH
Summary: After he leaves Harry and Hermione on the search for the Horcruxes, Ron goes to Bill. Later he’s sure Bill judges him for leaving (like Fred and George would’ve done) but he just feels too guilty. Bill meanwhile feels nothing but empathy for his baby brother.
Relationships: Bill Weasley & Ron Weasley
Kudos: 9





	Baby Brother

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> I’m taking a short break from Victorious fanfictions and wrote this little one shot after rereading HP. I clearly want to distance myself from the author of that but I still can’t help loving the core material.  
> My heart goes out to everyone out there fighting the good fight, especially the young ones that shouldn't be the ones having to fight for what's right.  
> Enjoy the one shot!

Ron was pale and a bit shaky.  
When Bill saw him in front of his door, he believed for a moment that the war was lost. He believed that Ron actually saw Harry get killed and now stood before him as a broken man.  
But Bill noticed quickly that that wasn’t true. Yes, Ron was broken. But in such a different way. Maybe even worse because he felt guilty.  
Fleur and he got Ron in and tried to get him comfortable. Then Bill asked Fleur to leave them alone, him and his brother. Fleur did, understanding. She left the kitchen, where they finally got Ron to sit down at the small table. He sat there with his hands around a cup of hot chocolate, which should make him feel better. If he would drink it.  
But he just stared down onto it, without really seeing it, while he told Bill without any emotion in his voice what happened. How he fought with Harry and how he left him and Hermione. How he met some snatchers. How he tried to go back afterwards, but how he couldn’t find Harry and Hermione anymore. How he he didn’t know where else he was supposed to go.  
Bill asked why he fought with Harry.  
Ron only shrugged. He didn’t look at him as if he didn’t want to see Bill’s disappointment and his judging stare.  
Bill noticed how he started picking his nails while holding his cup. Back in time he always had done that when not wanting to cry. Fred and George had loved to tease him whenever he had started crying after rough playing. By picking his nails he had managed to not cry over time.  
Bill was surprised for a moment, how often he had seen Ron do this, after they hadn’t really grown up together. He had started at Hogwarts after all when Ron had only been two and a half years old.  
But he hadn’t only been home during the summer holiday but also during Christmas and even Easter in his first four years. Not even a year before he had started at Hogwarts Voldemort had fallen – for the first time; the second and last time would hopefully follow soon. But just because Voldemort had suddenly been gone, hadn’t mean that everyone was free of fear at once. Bill had known that his parents were barely able to stand to not see him every day, scared to the bone – so he had gone back whenever he could, just like so many of his classmates during the first few years. Until his OWLs had come and he had needed to stay at Hogwarts throughout the Easter holidays to learn.  
His siblings had grown up with more liberties. Charlie had experienced the time somewhat similiar, as he only was two years younger. He also had gone home throughout his first three years during all the holidays. But in Bill’s OWL year he also had chosen to stay at Hogwarts for Easter, as that had long grown more usual again. As there were examinations at the end of every school year anyway and everyone liked to use the time of Easter holiday for revisions.  
Percy, who had started at Hogwarts in Bill’s OWL year, had never gone home for Easter.  
But Percy also had to remember the time when Voldemort had been strong before. After all, he also had already been five years old when Voldemort had vanished – and hadn’t been allowed to leave the house alone for years to come. As Bill and Charlie also hadn’t been allowed to. But after Voldemort’s first fall, they at least had been allowed to leave the house without their parents, just the kids together, and visit the village or alike.  
Bill and Charlie both still remembered a time where even that hadn’t been an option. It had been as if the danger in the village had been so much worse than in their house, which it probably hadn’t been – but Bill had seen the worry in his parents‘ faces all the time. He had been old enough to understand about his uncles‘ cruel deaths. Which was why he had played by the rules and also had made Charlie do so, though Charlie had often wanted tosneak out. Bill had known that his parents would’ve died out of worry for them if they would’ve noticed so he had forced him and his brother to stay inside.  
Sometimes, he had been jealous of his siblings, especially the youngest once, that they were allowed to grow up in easier times and were freerer.  
Now he wished nothing more but for them to be free in every sense of the word.  
Instead the whole family didn’t talk to Percy anymore after his falling out with their father, pretty much because of Voldemort – and what if he wouldn’t survive and Bill could never tell him that he was still his little brother and that he loved him?  
George had lost his ear and they all could be happy that it hadn’t been his life.  
Ginny had been possessed by Voldemort with only eleven years of age and had almost been killed. She had stood her ground against Death Eaters with only being fourteen and had fought. And now she was on the Voldemort reigned Hogwarts and what if one of the family members misstepped in public and Ginny would be the one being killed for it, though she was still only sixteen?  
And then there was Ron, sitting in front of him now, pale and shaky, picking his nails, like the young boy he still was. Yes, he was out of age with seventeen but how could anyone say that a seventeen year old wasn’t still a child in a way? How could anyone expect from a seventeen year old to shoulder as much as Ron did? How had he himself thought of a broken man, seeing Ron earlier, when he was still a boy, really, a boy that should be protected?  
But it was easy to forget how young Ron still was, had he always behaved like an adult seeing death and despair.  
He already had been willing to give his life with only twelve to help Harry keep Voldemort from getting his body back. Bill’s heart had almost stopped when he had heard about it.  
With thirteen, he hadn’t only gone deep into the Forbidden Forest to solve the mysteries of the Chamber of Secrets and to help save everyone at Hogwarts, he also went to said Chamber with Harry, though there was a deadly monster inside, to save Ginny. Obviously to save Ginny because Ron, like all of them, would do everything for the people he loved, especially their family which was more important than everything else. That already had been more important than everything else for Ron while still being so young. Bill had been more than happy to be around Ron and Ginny that following summer to actually see for himself that they were both save and sound now.  
With sixteen, Ron also had stood his ground and had fought Death Eaters.  
Yes, Harry Potter obviously shouldered the most. The boy who lived. Who was also still a boy and a symbol at the same time, the only hope. But Ron shouldered almost as much – and he had the option to walk away at any moment but he had never done so. Until now. For the very first time it got to be too much for him. Whatever Dumbledore had told Harry to do, Bill was sure, all their lives depended on it. Ron had gone with Harry without hesitating once, while only being seventeen. Who could blame him for just breaking this once?  
But even now, he only shortly buckled under the burden. He wanted to go back. He wanted to go back to Harry and Hermione and keep fighting, keep protecting.  
It broke Bill’s heart to see him like this. His baby brother who should be in his last year at Hogwarts and only worry if his NEWTs would be enough for his chosen future. Who wasn’t supposed to fight for his life and that of others, and who shouldn’t feel as if he wasn’t enough, as if he was a bad person just because he didn’t show as much strength that one time as most adults even never did.  
Bill stood up from the table. “You’ve been through a lot. You should go to sleep. When you wake back up, everything will look different again.” He knew that it wasn’t true. Ron was getting eaten up by his guilt and would be until he would find a way back to Harry and Hermione. But what could Bill do except give him a place to stay and sort of a hideaway?  
Because Bill knew why Ron had come to him instead of the rest of the family at the Burrow. Ron didn’t feel able to see anyone else, thought they would judge him. Bill was sure that the rest of the family would understand, just like he did. But he wouldn’t force Ron to tell anyone else. It wouldn’t change anything about how Ron felt about it – it could make it worse.  
So he just ruffled his hair with his hand like he had seen their mother do so often back in time, like she ruffled Ron’s hair in the greatest chaos at home to show Ron, who was always so silent compared to the twins but also to the rest of the siblings, really, with this small gesture full of love that she still saw him, that she knew he was there too, that she loved him. He hoped to convey the same love with the gesture before he brought Ron up to the guest room where he hopefully would find a few hours of calm.


End file.
